Our Story
by Tifa Gainsborough
Summary: Cloud wants to tell you a story. Are you ready to listen? To hear his truth?


Many years ago, I was use to the constant knocking at my front door. Now, it seems so foreign I hardly recognize it. Nobody comes around anymore, I've hidden myself away from them. This time the person at the door was lost. They hardly believed their eyes when I opened the door. I was able to convince them I wasn't who they thought I was.

Lying to people had never been my strongest point. Stretching the truth is another matter. Now why again did I start this train of thought? I remember now, to tell you my story. The real story has been warped over the years even I hardly recognize it. Names were dropped and events were expanded. I sound more like a invincible super hero then an ordinary man. 

It's been some forty years since the events actually took place. Thrust into events I would have rather watched from the side lines. Yet, I believe only I was capable to defeating him. Not that I don't think my friends could have taken care of him. Sure they could have defeated Shinra, but Sephiroth, that was a different matter completely. 

Sephiroth.

I had defeated him once, it was hard going back to defeat him again. He had once been my idol, I looked up to him. But I couldn't deny the fact that he had killed my family and mortally wounded my friends. Zax, who had wanted nothing more to stop Sephiroth. Yet in the end, Zax had died trying to protect me. 

To protect me from myself. Did he look upon me and see what a failure I had become? 

That's where the story actually starts. Not at the destruction of the Reactor. But in Nibelhiem, where everything that could go wrong, went wrong. But neither Tifa nor I talk about it and nobody bothers to ask us about it. To the people, it started with AVALANCHE and the destruction of Reactor 1. To me it started in Nibelhiem, but nobody seems to care about that. 

Nobody wants to talk about the death of Sephiroth or the years I was a test subject for Hojo. Trapped at the bottom of the Shinra Mansion with only my own mind for comfort. Yes Zax was there, but I was too screwed over to even notice. But Zax saved me and how did I repay him? By stealing his identity and being the one responsible for his death. If I said that I regretted my action I would be lying. 

Although people would just laugh and say I was being modest about it. Many can't get it through their heads that I'm not this perfect person that they would like me to be. I did what I had to do and liked it.

Which brings be around to the rest of the group. None of the group was perfect in any way. Tifa was so tormented that we were unable to bring Aerith back, she ended up committing suicide. She had said in her note that she blamed herself. That if Aerith hadn't tried to save her from Don Corneo she wouldn't have been dragged into the whole event. I think the group expected me to the be the one killing myself. I saw what Sephiroth did, I was the one that wanted to go looking for her.

Something told me to give it up. Even though it's been forty years I have yet to figure out what it was. I don't blame myself was Aerith's decision. I tried all I could to keep her from joining in. She knew what she was getting herself into. I only wish that Tifa had been able to accept that as well. 

Tifa, still it hurts to think about her end. I had been the one to find her. Her limp body swinging slowly from the rope she had used to hang herself with. It had crossed my mind momentarily to cut her down and hang myself with the same rope. But my selfishness kept me from doing anything. I had to call Vincent to cut her down, I just couldn't touch her. 

Barret had been the most hurt my Tifa's death. One day he had simply disappeared into the abandoned mines of Corel and never emerged. Marlene still talks like he is in the same room. I use to visit her, but the asylum makes me feel a little crazy. Now I am to old, too tired to visit her. To actually even care anymore.

My friends have slowly drifted away, I believe I am one of the few left. Cid died nearly twenty years ago. His smoking habit had finally caught up with him. The doctors were even surprised he had lived so long, considering how much he smoked. Shera died a few months after. Many said that it had been from a broken heart.

I don't understand why, Cid was hardly ever nice to her. The world considered them the greatest couple. They didn't even sleep in the same room together. This is the real story I have to try to tell the world. To get past this facade that they have cast upon us. But to them it is a fairy tale. They don't want to hear the bitter truth. 

That most of us hadn't gone to save the world for them. But to satisfy our own personal needs and gain personal fame. At least that was one of the reason's. Another was to stop Sephiroth, not for the world. But for us.

But now back to what happened after the fairy tale. To tell about the real truth, to tell the real story. Who else is there to talk about, what other real stories can I tell you.

Yuffie, always an interesting person to talk about. She ended up falling into the company of Reno. I still have yet to realize what she ever say in him. But it didn't last very long. After five years of living together they raged into a huge fight and ended up killing each other. I wish I had stepped in and actually said something. But I remained on the sideline and watched them self-destructed. It was doomed to begin with, Reno was a drunk and Yuffie was possessive.

Now how many were left after all this torment? 

There was Vincent, the man who after everything had turned into every woman's fantasy. He had hated his life after that. There was nowhere that he could hide from everybody. He had wanted to get away, but got dragged into the whole excitement. 

I had wanted that attention, I won't lie about it. I guess I could say that was why I wasn't so upset when I found Vincent again. Using his claw, he had shredded his face, blinding himself. He told me calmly that the women no longer looked at him. I knew he had wanted to die, but it hadn't happened. He had to live with himself, with what he had become. 

Today that was twelve years ago. I haven't spoken to him since. What he has become frightens me more that what he was.

I haven't spoken to Nanaki since that day forty years previous. He's the only one out of all of us that hasn't changed. Then again he was the only one not bothered by the press on a day to day basis. He retired to Cosmo Canyon and was happy. It's not my place to take away his happiness. Even if I wished it upon myself. 

Cait Sith was a character, that's a certain fact. Yet I hardly knew anything about the man behind the doll. He had died on the day Meteor was destroyed. Still to this day the truth around his death is a mystery. Nobody ever found his body. To tell the truth, I wasn't too upset about his death. It may sound heartless but it is hard to get attached to somebody when all you are presented with is a doll.

Now that leaves me. The man that was suppose to be a hero. I am no hero, never have been and never wanted to be. Yet now all I want to do is curl up and die. So much of what has happened was my fault. All my life I was responsible for things and never did anything to stop them. 

So now you have heard the story behind the fairy tale. Our story, when in truth there is only one left to tell it. I have no real regrets for everything I have done. I was the only one that knew the real truth, the real story. Now you know as well.

The truth hurts me. In the end, it will probably be the thing that ends up killing me. Unfortunately, it has yet to happen.

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Authors Note: Hope you enjoyed this. It was different, wasn't it? Tell me what you think. Final Fantasy VII and all associated character are property of Square Enix.


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